Too much email makes people stupid
by Shane on 11/10/07 at 12:04 pm
2 comments
Over the last while I have made a discovery of epic proportions!
People are only able to read one question per email. Forget about asking two questions in an email because you’re wasting your valuable time – it won’t be answered, or worse, it won’t even be read!
People don’t read anymore, they scan. When you are bombarded with way too much info on a daily basis, your brain goes into a freeze and the only thing that will wake it up is a ‘headline’ (eg. FREE SEX) or an interesting snippet. So when they are reading your email with 20 questions, the first question interups their ‘brain sleep’ and forces them into an auto respond mode; and before they’ve even looked at critical question number 2, they’ve hit the reply button and are already ending their response email with ‘Kindest Regards’!
So what can we really do to end this mass stupidity? (If you’ve read this question, congratulations – your brain is ok) I think the mass stupidity is here to stay, but we can certainly change the way we interact with others, which will hopefully help us to communicate more effectively in general.
Shorten your emails. 37 Signals said it well, “Long emails get ignored and filed away. Short emails get read.” If you want all your questions responded to, perhaps send seperate emails per question – it’s a great way forward.
The guys at MindTools had some excellent pointers -
1. Subject Lines are Headlines
2. Make One Point per Email
3. Specify the Response You Want
4. Be a Good Correspondent
Back to reading my email…
Shane Dryden is the 'Maven' at Ideate. The driving-force of Yuppiechef, Shane loves to write on advertising and innovation. He spots the non-obvious stuff behind the obvious, which seems obvious, but isn’t really that obvious (obviously). View more articles by Shane.
Fred
Oct 11th, 2007
Huh, what?
What was that about free sex?
administration bachelor business in online
Oct 14th, 2010
Hello
my homie look forward to reading more from you. Have a ubercool week.